’I was made to put my head in another man’s buttocks’
XOLANI Siko was beaten, stripped naked, made to lie down on the floor with his face in another man’s buttocks, kicked
repeatedly and had a dog set on him by officials during a crackdown at St Albans Prison in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape.
These shocking claims are contained in court papers before the High Court in Port Elizabeth as part of a potentially massive civil claim against the Department of Correctional Services.
The court questioned Siko’s sequence of events and, in August last year, declined to award him R1.8-million in damages. His legal team is appealing.
According to the papers, Siko claims to have suffered extensive injuries to his back, neck, legs and hands, and was exposed to the blood and bodily fluids of other prisoners. Siko is one of 231 victims of the alleged “mass assault” in June 2005 who have started a civil case against the department.
It has become known as “the McCallum Case” after Bradley McCallum, one of the victims who took the incident to the UN Human Rights Commission in 2008. In a finding released two years later, the commission said South Africa had violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the country became a signatory in 1998.
Siko alleges that the abuse took place over five days following the murder of warder Babini Nqakula, a relative of former defence minister Charles Nqakula. He says he continues to suffer physical and psychological pain, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.
The papers claim the department failed in its constitutional duty to protect Siko from torture, violence and degrading and cruel treatment.
According to lawyer Egon Oswald, who is representing the 231 current or former inmates, Siko was one of two claimants who were used in test cases last year.
Judge Dayalin Chetty ruled that many of Siko’s claims — including that he was assaulted with a shock shield — was “a product of his fertile imagination”. He also found no evidence that Siko was attacked by dogs.
Oswald’s application for leave to appeal will be heard next month.